Joshua Orlando Avery

THE GROTON AVERY CLAN, Vol. I, by Elroy McKendree Avery and Catherine Hitchcock (Tilden) Avery, Cleveland, 1912. p. 437, 729

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JOSHUA O. AVERY, a well-known citizen of Weston township, is a native of Connecticut, born November 23, 1828, in New London county. The first of the Averys in this country came over in the " Mayflower, " and in after years many of the name were massacred at Fort Ledyard.

Dudley Avery, father of our subject, was also of Connecticut nativity, born December 16, 1791, of English ancestry, and died near Monroeville, Huron Co., Ohio, September 30, 1854. He followed the occupation of a farmer, was a Universalist in religion, a Republican in politics. In Connecticut, October 16, 1814, he married Miss Prudence Avery, a native of that State, born August 26, 1788, of English parentage. Their children were: Dudley Austin, born September 21, 1815, died November 29, 1890; Hiram, b. February 7, 1817, d. March 30, 1855; Luther, b. April 30, 1819, d. February 28, 1895; Sydney S., b. April 16, 1822, d. February 24, 1830; Sarah Elizabeth, b. August 14, 1823, d. April 30, 1890 (she married Thomas B. Smith, in Huron county, and was residing at Dundee, Mich., at the time of her death; they had one child, Joseph B. Smith); John Q. A., b. June 12, 1825, d. June 2, 1826; Lucy Ann, b. December 30, 1826, d. February 9, 1830; Joshua 0., our subject, comes next; Sylvia Ann, b. August 31, 1830, married William H. Chapman (he is deceased, and she now resides one mile east of Weston); and Prudence Olive, b. July 9, 1832, married to Edwin Mauley, of Sherman township, Huron county.

For a time our subject attended school in his native county, and then moved with his parents to Cleveland, Ohio, whence after a year's sojourn the family removed to Huron county, settling near Monroeville, in 1838. There Mr. Avery again attended school until he was twenty years of age, at which time he came to Wood county and located two and one-half miles east of Weston. In 1864 he enlisted at Tontogany, in Company K, 185th O. V. I., under Gen. Cummings, and was honorably discharged in May, 1865. He suffered many hardships connected with a soldier's life, and so shattered in health was he when he returned home that he has been an invalid ever since from paralysis and spinal trouble, so as to be unfit for performing manual labor. He was a corporal in Capt. Black's company. Returning home he had his residence in Tontogany two years, then remained at his former home near Weston till 1889, in which year he came to his present beautiful home, situated one mile north of that village. It contains twenty-four and one-half acres of highly improved land, in addition to which Mr. Avery owns a farm of 120 acres in Plain township. In early life he followed agricultural pursuits, but for ten years he traveled for a plating firm, and for the past decade he has assisted in collecting the taxes of the county. In his political preferences he is a stanch Republican, and for several years he served as trustee of Plain township. As a member of the G. A. R., he has always taken great interest in the National Encampments, having attended nearly all that have been so far held. The county fairs have no better champion than Mr. Avery, and for the past twenty years he has been the able and active secretary of the Wood County Agricultural Society.

Mr. Avery has been thrice married; first time in Lyme township, Huron Co., Ohio, on June 8, 1851, to Miss Harriet Manley, of Sherman, Ohio, born March 6, 1834, in Deerfield, Oneida Co., N. Y., a daughter of John and Thankful (Nicholson) Manley, who were of English descent. To this union children as follows were born: Thankful J., born August 21, 1853, died in infancy; Dudley Hiram, b. April 11, 1857, married Ellie M. Wiley, of Bowling Green, Ohio; Harriet Jane A., b. March 6, 1859, married B. P. Stratton, of Bowling Green, and they have two children Pearl and Harold; John Orlando, b. July 9, 1861, lives in Bowling Green, married Miss Cora Hemminger, of North Baltimore, Ohio, and they had two children-Lea M. (deceased), and Bernard; Florence Susanna, b. March 17, 1864, and married G. W. Cheeney, also lives in Bowling Green; Flora Adelia, b. September 23, 1865, died in infancy; and Cora Coen, b. July 30, 1868, single. The mother of these died August 4, 1868, and July 20, 1870, at Tontogany, Mr. Avery married his second wife. For his third he wedded January 6, 1883, Miss Letitia Elenor Fillmore, who was born October 23, 1864, a daughter of Timothy and Patience (Allen) Fillmore, the former of whom was born in New Brunswick, Canada, July 28, 1836, the latter in Nova Scotia, April 12, same year. Timothy Fillmore was a son of William Fillmore and wife, also natives of New Brunswick, and whose parents were English. In 1839, when Timothy was a small boy, the family moved by way of the St. Lawrence to Upper Canada (now province of Ontario), and on board the same vessel was his future wife, little two-year-old Patience Allen, who was accompanying her parents westward. She and Timothy were married August 3, 1856, in Canada, and in 1868 they moved into Michigan, settling in Midland county, where they are still living on their farm. They were the parents of eleven children, one of whom died in infancy; the others were: Julia D. (Mrs. John Marsh); William H., of Midland; James W., of Weston; Celia (Mrs. B. Canfield), now deceased; Letitia Elenor (Mrs. Avery); and Carrie, Sarah, Millard, Mahlon, and Corra, all five at home. The parents of these are both Methodists, and Mr. Fillmore is a Republican.

Mrs. Avery is affiliated with the Woman's Relief Corps, also with the L. O. T. M., and is a member of the Methodist Church.